[Review 1242] Saved by sriracha sauce @ 西貢真味越南小廚

17/08/2011
西貢真味越南小廚
西貢福民路58-72號高富樓8號舖
Shop 8, Ko Fu Building, 58-72 Fumin Road, Sai Kung
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/saved-by-sriraicha-sauce-e2189567

Went here because there were quite a few positive comments on it on OpenRice.

The restaurant is extremely tiny and capable of seating around ten people.

Again, this is another restaurant in Sai Kung which tastes too local.

The beef and tomato was very disappointing because if you have had that in the city, the rice is red and not plain boiled rice.
There were only a few pieces of beef and beneath it was big chunks of carrot.
The grilled chicken was even worse, it was dry, but luckily there was a bottle of sriraicha sauce on the table.
The dishes came slowly, so by the time one dish was finished, the other one arrived.

I do not usually comment on the price, but around $34 per dish it quite expensive and it does not include a drink as well.
Perhaps the cambodian noodles in tomato soup would fare better, as the comments were mostly on that.


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Price: around $34 per dish excluding drinks
English menu: Nope
Service: OK
Yummy factor: not really
MSG levels: slightly
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[Review 1241] Disappearing and weird staff @ 恭和堂 Kung Wo Tong

11/08/2011
恭和堂 Kung Wo Tong
將軍澳貿業路8號新都城中心3期1樓125號舖
Shop 125, 1/F, MCP Discovery, 8 Mau Yip Road, Tseung Kwan O
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/disappearing-and-weird-staff-e2188682

It is not like me to get drinks from this place, but I saw this murky lime coloured drink in one of the five dispensers so went over to see what it was.
I thought it was going to be cane juice but it was lemon and barley.
The rest of the four dispensers where traditional Chinese herb drinks which I do not drink.

Anyway, I ordered a cup of lemon and barley, and one of the assistants got a paper cup and put it it under the dispenser, filled it and left!
I was left wondering if the drink was ready or not!
Then another rude assistant came over to see why I was waiting at the entrance so I passed her the $9 which was the cost of the drink.
All she did was take the $9 and left, she didnt even ask what it was for.
She did not even pass me my drink.

Since I had already paid for the drink, it seemed legal to collect it the cup from the dispenser!

Overall the drink was OK, there was not any taste of any preservatives.
I felt the drink was slightly thick, but perhaps because there was not much left in the dispenser, so it was only residue.

The only let down was the strange service.

Although the customer service was poor, perhaps POLAM town is too urban, the people do not seem to have a concept of OpenRice or food reviews, they were highly suspicious and unfriendly when photos of the surroundings and drinks were taken!
This is probably why there are not any reviews on this place or restaurants around this area which are quite local and do not have branches in the city.

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Price: $9 per cup
English menu: nope
Service: NOT AT ALL!
Sweetness levels: very light but sligthy syrupy
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[Review 1240] Ja Ja jambalaya rice is delicious @ Blue Smoke Bar-B-Que

10/08/2011

Blue Smoke Bar-B-Que
中環蘭桂坊15-16號協興大廈3樓
3/F, Grand Progress Building, 15-16 Lan Kwai Fong, Central
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/ja-ja-jambalaya-rice-is-delicious-e2188223

Finally paid the Blue Smoke Bar-B-Que a visit, which is conveniently located in LKF.

It is part of the Dining concepts group, which features their menu online.

I was attracted to this place because the starters looked really good, especially the Mac and Cheese which are fried balls with macaroni and cheese inside.
It is south American/Mexican cuisine.

I tried the Chicken Jamabalaya and the chilli beef burger.
The chicken Jamabalaya was the best, every part and every grain of rice was flavourful.
Anyway next time I will be back for the Mac and cheese.
The burger was good too, but I would have preferred a western bun rather than a sweet local Chinese bun.

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Price: quite reasonable.
English menu: yes
Service: Brilliant
Yummy factor: very.
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[Review 1239] Aug 2011 New mini Kami bucket with camo design @ 肯德基家鄉雞 (KFC) Kentucky Fried Chicken

06/08/2011
肯德基家鄉雞 (KFC) Kentucky Fried Chicken
將軍澳重華路8號東港城1樓185號舖
Shop No.185, 1/F, East Point City, 8 Chung Wa Road, Tseung Kwan O
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/new-mini-kami-bucket-with-camo-design-kfc-aug2011-e2187132


Went to try the mini kami bucket just because of the potato sticks.
The mini kami bucket meal consists of two pieces of chicken, potato sticks, kami pudding and a drink for $39.

In Hong Kong they only serve the waffle cut fries which are boring, I prefer them served with fries just like the UK, and they also have gravy as well.

Anyway, I was excited when they had potato sticks, an alternative to waffle fries.

From the product shot, the shape and size of the potato sticks looked like fish fingers.
On closer inspection, they were just hash browns made into that shape.
The chicken tasted how it should however the potato sticks were overdone, it was too crispy and not fluffy inside lacking potato taste and smell.
It looked slightly different to the product shot, because the real thing looked evidently like a hash brown, but the one in the product shot had a smooth surface looking like breadcrumbs or a long croquette.

The Kami pudding had two flavours: strawberry and caramel.
I opted for the caramel, which has a layer of caramel at the bottom.
The kami pudding is actually made by epoch desserteries.
The taste of the pudding was ok, slightly creamy sweetened by the caramel at the bottom.

caramel kami pudding
Overall, the design of the bucket was really nice, it was the camo pattern incorporated with the KFC design resulting in red camouflage design.
A nice concept using the camo pattern as a packaging design for the kami dessert.

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Price: $39 slightly expensive.
English menu: yes
Service: OK
Yummy factor: potato was dissappointing.
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[Review 1238] Nitrous oxide strawberry soda @ SohoWay

05/08/2011
SohoWay
中環擺花街8號地下2號舖
Shop 2, G/F, 8 Lyndhurst Street, Central
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/nitrous-oxide-strawberry-soda-e2186972

Came back especially for the strawberry soda and oolong tea with grass jelly.

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Oolong tea with grass jelly:
This was visually interesting and stunning, the grass jelly floated on top of the tea instead of sinking below!
I never thought the density of grass jelly could be lighter than tea.

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Strawberry soda:
This tasted nice, however it was slightly disappointing because it was dead flat!

Isnt soda meant to be fizzy?
It was dead FLAT! So I told them it was flat, they re-did it again, and it was still flat!
I asked them if it was meant to be like that and they said it gets flat easily.
It is amazing how it can lose its fizzyiness within seconds of leaving the kitchen to the customer that is only a few steps away?

Anyway, I researched other drinks that contained nitrous oxide on the net, but the comments on it were fizzy just like other carbonated drinks.
I ordered this drink because Nitrous oxide is said to make people in an intense state of transcendent happiness combined with an overwhelming sense of contentment.
From one of the reviews, they said they were happy after drinking it without realising it contained Nitrous oxide.
I think this is one of their drinks to highlight, but I cant understand why they don't promote this drink or have information that this drink contains Nitrous oxide rather than ordinary soda on the menu.
They can't expect everyone that comes to Sohoway to have read that article in the newspaper.
If I hadn't read some article in the media about this place I wouldn't have found out about this drink.
After I drank it, I just felt soothed and calm, not as happy as one of the reviewers said.
It was probably because I was disappointed with the flatness of the drink, so the drink just brought me back to normal levels!
I wondered if I had been in a normal state, would I have been hyped up.

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Price: $3x with 10% on top.
English menu: yes, some have pictures!
Service: OK
Yummy factor: OK
Sweetness levels: light
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[Review 1237] Froyo made high end and artistic @ Smile Yogurt & Dessert Bar

03/08/2011
Smile Yogurt & Dessert Bar (已結業)
九龍城獅子石道65號地下
G/F, 65 Lion Rock Road, Kowloon City
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/froyo-made-high-end-and-artistic-e2186364

There are so many places selling Froyo these days that competition is fierce.

I was attracted to this place because their froyo was artistic.
Instead of plain froyo with toppings, they looked like artisan sundaes with attractive names.

Some of the toppings were interesting such as the vanilla crisp, which were thinly baked vanilla biscuit/cookies shaped into long curls.

They also had these pretty biscuit sticks similar to the Japanese coated biscuit sticks.
One of the toppings was weird, it was called "fruit salad" but at least they used greek yogurt instead of Heinz salad cream.

I wanted to try the froyo, so I just got plain froyo with green tea mochi.
The mochi was very different to the other places, it was thin pieces of powdered mochi squares!
As for the froyo, it was boring but too sweet.

The decoration of this place was quite modern and upscale.

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Price: Cant remember, went a while ago.
English menu: yes, and they have pictures!
Service: OK
Yummy factor: OK
Sweetness levels: but too sweet
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[Review 1236] The perfect balance @ La Balance Ginza

03/082011
La Balance Ginza
銅鑼灣軒尼斯道555號崇光百貨地庫
Basement, Sogo, 555 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/the-perfect-balance-at-la-balance-ginza-e2186314

I am not a fan of Japanese cheesecake, or soft serve ice-cream unless it is the soft-serve ice-cream from Kasho Chaya.

But anyway tried it.

It costs $35 per cup and the standard items are ice-cream, a piece of cheesecake, and a choice of sauce which are mango, custard or chocolate.

I chose custard sauce and the colour of it was pale yellow.

I do not really eat these items separately, but it all tasted nice together, the cheesecake which is usually a bit dry and tasteless was moistened by the lovely cold ice-cream, but it was quite bland because both the cheesecake and icecream were not that sweet.

The custard sauce made the ice-cream and cheesecake come alive.

This dessert is perfect for those who don't like overly sweet things.

It reminded me of having scones with clotted cream with custard sauce!

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Price: $35 per cup, about the same as other places.
English menu: yes, and they have pictures!
Service: OK
Yummy factor: OK
Sweetness levels: very light
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